Deliveroo offers free online courses for riders and their families

Under the food delivery company's expanded initiative, riders and their families can now access 700 free online courses on OpenClassrooms to diversify their skills while they stay home

Deliveroo today announced that it is offering free online learning courses for riders' families as they stay home amidst the additional safe distancing measures announced by the government. This is an extension of the firm's existing learning offerings for riders, which allows riders to attend free courses on topics ranging from software development to project management to developing soft skills through online education platform OpenClassrooms.

As more riders and their families are at home, Deliveroo is both expanding the number of courses available from 300 to 700 and making these available to riders' partners and children, giving them the opportunity to develop new skills and earn new qualifications in their free time.

Ride, upskill and learn with OpenClassrooms

The initiative aims to provide riders and their families the opportunity to study subjects to support their educational and professional development. In 2019, over 160 riders in Singapore have signed up and completed close to 3,300 course hours on the OpenClassrooms platform. Web skills have been one of the most in-demand skills amongst riders, with courses on building your first web pages with HTML and CSS and the fundamentals of the Python programming language amongst the top two most popular courses. With the expansion of the OpenClassrooms partnership, this number is expected to grow exponentially.

Suitable for ages 16 and above, the course topics include building a CV to design, marketing, entrepreneurship and coding skills, and are held in varying lengths, ranging from an hour to several months. Those who embark on a course can study at their own pace with no limit to the number of courses they can take. Upon each course completion, participants will receive a Certificate of Completion that can be used for future job applications.

Rider Anis Yusof, 24 said: "Through OpenClassrooms, I took up a Microsoft Office course, which was really helpful in my daily work. I learned more about the software interface, as well as how to use various tools. I'm very grateful to Deliveroo for this opportunity."

A Deliveroo spokesperson said: "With more riders' families inside at home during this period, we wanted to enable them to have the option of online learning. We know that many of our riders ride with us to support a long-term ambition, and online learning is a great way to pick up new skills, while still being able to ride with Deliveroo when and where they want. While everyone is likely to have some more downtime at home, we want to make sure we support both riders and their loved ones as much as we can."